The Adventures of Golden Boy, my Rebound E30

[Tate]

Kreygasm* (I spelled it wrong the first time) - Its an emoticon from twitch, which expresses an intense feeling of elation or pleasure. Its from a gamer called Kreyg. So Kreyg + Orgasm = Kreygasm.

[CubbyChowder]

I was stoked to see this on IG! I loved your previous E30. It was super simple but worked well.
I'm sure this one will be great, too.

Thanks man! I like to keep things clean and simple.

I wish they made those in 17s, id consider it for my E28

I was wishing they made them in 15's. The 16's look a tad small on E28's in my opinion, so I feel your pain.

Really glad to be here from the begining of this build.
And I love long write ups, especially from you seeing as you know how to write well!
And keen on seeing all the little details, personally I find them very interesting and I find they can spark a couple of cool ideas for myself sometimes.
Definitely in for more

Also, I'm more than confident the 2002 went to the best people it could have gone too, and getting parts as part of the deal makes it oh so much sweeter

Well thanks man, you make me feel better about writing a novel every time I update! haha.

I am glad you are getting back into another bmw. I refreshed your hold 02 thread many times.....waiting.

I'm very glad that I was able to as well, everything kind of fell into place on this whole scenario so I'm super grateful that I get to work on a new project.

So glad to see you're back in action with another build. I'm sad to see the 2002 go, but handing it off to CATuned is certainly an ideal outcome by any standards. Bronzit is a seriously cool color, and this will be one seriously cool car! Can't wait

Like I said in the comment right above this one, I'm super happy to be able to start another build as well! With the '02 in the right hands I feel super comfortable about moving on from it. Bronzit is definitely growing on me, we'll see if it's enough to convince me on keeping it.

I am excited to see the progress!

Kreygasm* (I spelled it wrong the first time) - Its an emoticon from twitch, which expresses an intense feeling of elation or pleasure. Its from a gamer called Kreyg. So Kreyg + Orgasm = Kreygasm.

Haha! Very interesting, as long as you have a kreygasm on your side of the computer it's all good with me

[CubbyChowder]

Some parts are starting to roll in, so naturally I had to lay everything out and take pictures. It's gonna happen every time I get new parts, so be prepared for that.

One of my first plans for this car is to completely refresh all suspension related components. Going with all OEM or OE quality replacements, just want it tight and neat.



So far I have gathered:
Lemforder complete front control arms (included in purchase of E30)
Meyle Lollipops with bushings pressed in (included in purchase of E30)
Genuine BMW rear subframe bushings
Lemforder rear trailing arm bushings
Lemforder rear sway bar linkages



Still need to gather a few little things for when the big refresh comes. I'm researching steering rack options/swaps for the future so I'm holding off on new tie rods for now. Ordered a couple things from FCPeuro on cyber monday and it turns out they sent me my order twice:



Stay quiet and act like it never happened? Nahhh I'll let them know they fudged up. Emailing them as soon as I post this update. They've always been good to me.

The other day I had a few hours to spare so I decided to tear the Viper Alarm system out. I was already sensing problems with it and it prevented me from starting the car a few times, couldn't figure out why. I know next to nothing about alarm systems so I figured I'd remove it now to prevent problems and maybe pay to have a new one installed down the road. Felt good to tear into things a little, it's been quite a while since I curved my spine around a car seat and grunted like a billy goat:



This is gonna be fun to address eventually. The stereo system is all funky, one tweeter buzzes really loudly when the stereo is powered on. The wiring seems kinda fucked, I need to investigate deeper in the coming weeks:



Viper system out, happy times:

[Rez_hoj]

Eugh **** after market alarms!

I'd go with an old fashion kill switch. Unless you want something to go off when the wind blows 😅

[oprahhwinfreyy]

Glad you posted this on SW. Now I can stay on one website haha. Really excited to see what the TRs look like on an early model.

[CubbyChowder]

Eugh **** after market alarms!

I'd go with an old fashion kill switch. Unless you want something to go off when the wind blows 😅

haha not a bad idea, we'll see what happens.

Glad you posted this on SW. Now I can stay on one website haha. Really excited to see what the TRs look like on an early model.

I have a great feeling about them, I love the way they look.

[hinrichs]

Glad I went back and actually read your first post. Sad to see the 2002 go for sure as its one of my favorite models, but I totally understand why you did. Glad that catuned is getting it and not some idiot that will ruin it.

E30 looks like a solid platform to build up slowly. Cant wait to see the wheels once you get them mounted up.

[LCG]

You need a new sig..

I made you one.

[konokrad]

You need a new sig..

I made you one.

seems legit

[Mehowski]

The thought of digging into electrical wiring and stuff scares me haha

[CubbyChowder]

Glad I went back and actually read your first post. Sad to see the 2002 go for sure as its one of my favorite models, but I totally understand why you did. Glad that catuned is getting it and not some idiot that will ruin it.

E30 looks like a solid platform to build up slowly. Cant wait to see the wheels once you get them mounted up.

Thanks man, I was nervous about it potentially going to an idiot that would ruin it, but thankfully that's not even remotely the case.

You need a new sig..

I made you one.

hahahah that's too good

The thought of digging into electrical wiring and stuff scares me haha

It's not that bad once you get a general idea of how it all works. I still have a lot to learn myself and have wiring diagrams to study before I jump in. Just gotta be mindful and prepared, and take your time.

[readfrost]

Super excited to see that you are going to continue messing around with BMWs. The '02 was a huge inspiration to me, and I'm sure this will be too. The E30 looks like a solid start, I'm in for more.

[CubbyChowder]

Super excited to see that you are going to continue messing around with BMWs. The '02 was a huge inspiration to me, and I'm sure this will be too. The E30 looks like a solid start, I'm in for more.

Thanks man! Huge props to you on attacking all that rust and saving your '02, must respect. Glad you'll be following along on this build

[CubbyChowder]

While this update isn't about progress on Golden Boy directly, I consider it part of the build because it's going to make working on it way better and more convenient. I only have so much floor space in my shop and I'm always trying to come up with ways to maximize space efficiency. My lift area as of lately has become more of a storage spot than an actual place to work on cars. This is the only photo I could find which shows how it's been set up for the past few months, you can see that I had a ton of stuff stored under the '02:



With the '02 leaving soon (within the next week or two hopefully), I figured it was the perfect time to build one of my ideas that I've been tossing around in my head for the last year or so. It's not meant to be anything pretty, it just serves a strictly functional purpose so I used some basic cheap materials. Made a Home Depot run and started building out the frame:



added some supports and flipped it over:



Layered it with OSB and then had the idea to wire lights into the bottom, so I made another Home Depot run and got everything I needed. I flipped it on it's side and then started wiring up the lights:



Got it all buttoned up and tested it out. I'm not very experienced with wiring so I'm always slightly nervous that I messed something up, but thankfully everything worked great, this stuff was very straight forward:



Got it on the ground, check out my sick underglow, needs more neon...



Got the '02 on the ground and rolled it out of the shop. This was a weird sight to see, it'll probably never go up on my lift again after this point:



So at this point you're probably wondering what the hell the purpose of this weird transportable stage with underglow lighting is. In the picture above you can see it off to the right packed with finished furniture and other things.

My goal was to be able to get as much stuff off the ground as possible. I had a lot of stuff that was taking up valuable floor space and just getting in the way, it was starting to drive me crazy. I can't work in a cluttered messy environment, it just throws my whole work flow off.

This platform was designed to be placed overhead on the lift while it's not in use and light up the new empty workspace underneath it. When I do want to put Golden Boy up on the lift, all I have to do is simply lower it and roll it out of the way. I still have a lot of tidying up to do but I was super eager to see it in action so I had to snap a pic as soon as I turned the lights on for the first time. I'm amped on how it turned out, it makes such a big difference in workable floor space, plus it only cost about $150 to build which is an added bonus:



Now that I got to try it out, I have a few little things I want to change. Mainly just bigger/stronger casters because it's pretty heavy and the current casters feel maxed out. I'd also like to fashion up some sort of safety feature that would prevent it from squashing me in the event of an earthquake or something like that. It would just be good peace of mind, plus I'd like to stick around for a while longer.

Tucked the '02 under it and called it a night:



Just for fun here's a set of nesting work tables I built out of some free steel I got earlier this year to help save on floor space while having extra workable table space. I'm all about finding weird little ways to make things more efficient:




Getting very excited to start a new chapter at the shop

[AtlantisTouring]

Awesome idea that!! Build is looking great